The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/703389
BY JOHN BORTON N o team on Michigan's cam- pus, male or female, carries greater expectations than Carol Hutchins' softball crew on a year-to-year basis. That fact shouts more loudly than the most ardent leather-lunged onlooker at Alumni Field. Huge hopes can lead to precipi- tous emotional falls. That's why the Wolverines left Oklahoma City without a dry eye among them in early June. They didn't win it all, and anything shy of a national championship for this crew seemed certain to engender disappointment. They won plenty, though — enough to be named by The Wolverine as Michigan's Female Team of the Year for the second straight sea- son. Accomplishments piled up like Buf- falo's snowfall in winter, including: • 52 victories, accompanied by a No. 2 national ranking nearly all season. • A regular-season Big Ten title. • An NCAA Regional champion- ship, captured in three games by a combined score of 20-2. • An NCAA Super Regional cham- pionship, via a pair of one-run thrill- ers over Missouri. • The National Player of the Year in senior second baseman Sierra Romero. • A host of school records and other individual plaudits. Hutchins has put more victories on the board for the Wolverines than any coach in any sport ever at Michigan. She's now won more softball games than anyone in college softball history. She knows better than anyone how very difficult those final one or two victories can be to achieve. Hutchins insists that in all of her trips to the Women's College World Series, she has left without tears only once — in 2005, when the Wolverines won it all. Those elusive wins don't wipe away all that led up to the difficult moments, Hutchins assured. "I've got a lot of heartbroken kids, a fantastic senior class that has to say goodbye, and I told them just to reflect on their careers, what they've meant to Michigan and what Michigan has meant to them," Hutchins said after the Wolverines' WCWS ouster. "We'll hold our head high at the end of the day because they represent this insti- tution and the sport of softball. They represent their families every day the way our institution asks them to do it. They're great Michigan women. "As a coach, ultimately that's what I'm most proud of. I'll always be proud of team 39. They've had a great season and we had a great run, and unfortu- nately we just ran out at the end." This year, the expectation might have grown out of proportion for one very significant reason. The Wolver- ines were loaded with outstanding seniors and a junior pitcher in Megan Betsa who took them to the final se- ries in Oklahoma City last year. They couldn't seal the deal against national champion Florida, and had most expecting a 2016 rematch for the title between the No. 1 Gators and No. 2 Wolverines. Florida then FEMALE TEAM OF THE YEAR SOFTBALL